Hike of the Week: Trek up Spruce Mountain proves confusing

May 3, 2012

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Written by

Ralph Ferrusi

Poughkeepsie Journal columnist

Ralph Ferrusi checked another fire tower off his to-do list with a trip up Spruce Mountain. / Ralph Ferrusi/Courtesy photo

How to get there

Northway Exit 13, follow Route 9 north to Saratoga Springs, left on 9N, then 10 miles north to tiny South Corinth. Left on Miner Road for 1.5 miles, right on Wells Road, straight ahead on Spruce Mountain Road to the end. For more hiking coverage, with columns by local hikers and a listing of upcoming outings, check out the Journal’s new expanded Environment section, My Valley, on Sunday, and visit www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/myvalley throughout the week.

Rating: According to John P. Freeman’s 2001-vintage “Views from on High, Fire Tower Trails in the Adirondacks and Catskills,” the Fire Tower Challenge “bible,” a Difficulty Rating of two; one being “Easy,” four being “Difficult.”

Dogs: This could be a good romp for Fido.

Map(s): “Views from on High” page 107. New York State Atlas/Gazetteer again was a big help navigating to this one.

Features: You can notch another fire tower off your Challenge list.

Watch out for: Since the trail wasn’t marked or blazed, and there weren’t any “to the tower” signs, I’d say that 90 percent of the time I wasn’t 100 percent sure we were going to end up at the tower, as opposed to, say, an abandoned high-country farm in the next county.

“Views from on High” separates the Adirondack towers into two groups: 18 with a “Bright Future,” and five “That May Not Last.” Spruce falls into the latter category, but though rendered un-climbable — the first flight of stairs has been yanked up out of reach — it looked in decent shape and appeared to be holding its own.

Background: I’ve gone on and on about goals: There was time when given a certain number of peaks over a certain height, or a long-distance hiking trail nnnn-miles long, I’d be compelled to gobble up every single one of the peaks or walk every inch of the trail.

The total length of a trail measuring hundreds or thousands of miles long became the obvious long-term goal, but one of the ways I persevered on these trails was to break them down into short-term goals: the next shelter, town, mountaintop, river crossing, state line. With the mountain lists, I found the closer I got to the end of the list, the more motivated I became; at first I’d be climbing a couple of mountains a month, but near the end I’d be banging out several a day.

I think goals are a good thing, and we always seem to have a few irons in the fire. We’ve paddled the easternmost 150 miles of the 750-mile Old Forge to Fort Kent, Maine, Northern Forest Canoe Trail (we plan to head back out this year), and we’re picking away at the 28 New York state fire towers listed in “Views.” The five restored Catskill towers — Balsam Lake, Hunter, Overlook, Red Hill and Tremper — were a snap. The 23 Adirondack towers, some of them ay up north, are going to be an entirely different challenge.

Hike description: I (wisely) decided to lug along “Views,” just in case. We crossed the culvert — all well and good — then turned left far short of the “70 yards” in the trail description: Hmm?

We soon reached a “PRIVATE LAND” sign on a tree, accompanied by several big red and yellow paint blotches. Kath said, “Get out the book.” It said the Magoo Hunt Club posted the land, but we were OK if we stuck to the “marked” hiking trail. We entered a vast, clear-cut area — more like a massacre — but eventually spotted a square, white, reassuring “trail” sign, that led us up a steep ankle-twisting rock-strewn “trail.”

We pretty much kept heading up, and, much to my relief, finally spotted the tower: but, no stairs, no views. Oh well.